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After 31 years, the nation’s 10th largest passenger airline is taking off with a co-branded bank credit card. Discount carrier ATA Airlines has linked up with U.S. Bank to launch the “ATA Platinum VISA” card and the “ATA Business VISA” card. Cardholders earn one point for every $3 in purchases without any cap. ATA offers a free roundtrip ticket for 6,000 points or a free companion ticket for 3,000 points. Cardholders are awarded 3,300 points with their first purchase. The “ATA Platinum VISA” carries a $55 annual fee and the “ATA Business VISA” carries a $75 annual fee. The interest rate for both cards is prime +9.99%, adjusted monthly. ATA operates scheduled service from Chicago-Midway, Hawaii, Indianapolis, New York, and San Francisco to over 40 destinations.

Atlanta-based CardSystems has secured $9.3 million in a private placement. The funds will be used to improve and expand CardSystems’ full-service processing and merchant acquiring services to support its Independent Sales Organization and bank clients. The company’s technologies feature an expert system, neural network, and service offerings for the card processing industry. Payment transactions for over 110,000 merchant locations are processed by CardSystems.

Since inking a deal in June, U.S. Bank has made MoneyGram money transfer services available at 185 locations in Chicago, Milwaukee, Madison, Los Angeles, and San Diego as part of the first phase installation, which will ultimately include all 2,344 U.S. Bank offices by mid-2005. MoneyGram enables consumers to transfer money to associates and loved ones all over the world through U.S. Bank. The price of a transfer depends on the amount being transferred and where it is being transferred to. U.S. Bancorp, the parent company of U.S. Bank, is the 6th largest financial services holding company in the U.S. with $190 billion in assets.

The FTC reported yesterday it is seeking civil penalties against a Nevada-based telemarketing group who allegedly made more than 300,000 calls to consumers who registered their phone numbers on the “National Do Not Call Registry.” The FTC says Braglia Marketing also made more than 10,000 calls to various phone numbers without first paying the required annual fee to access the registered numbers in those area codes. BMG calls consumers on behalf of its clients, including Flagship Resort Development Corporation and Atlantic Palace Development, which sell timeshare resort properties in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The maximum fine is up to $11,000 per illegal call. This is the first time the agency has sought civil penalties for violations of the “Registry.”

Casey’s General Stores, a mid-west convenience store chain, has installed the Retalix “StorePoint” suite of applications and NCR “RealPOS” and NCR “RealScan” POS technology to its 650th store. Retalix’s suite of applications includes Point of Sale, Front Office, Back Office, Fuel, and chain-level PriceBook management solutions. The StorePoint suite enables Casey’s General Stores to have increased visibility and management of store operations and improved customer shopping experiences. Casey’s solution also includes NCR RealPOS 70 POS terminals and NCR RealScan 92 barcode scanners. NCR RealPartner, North County Business Products, is providing Casey’s solution with staging, installation, and maintenance services. North County Business Products is a total POS solution provider for convenience store, grocery, and hospitality industries. Retalix Ltd. provides software solutions for global food and fuel retail industries including supermarkets, convenience stores, fuel stations, and restaurants. NCR Corporation is a global technology leader that helps businesses create strong ties to their customers through their ATMs, retail systems, Teradata(R) data warehouses, and IT services.

Capital One is sending out a major direct mail solicitation today that offers consumers the chance to win a $1 million private island just by scratching an inserted gamecard. The “Capital One No Hassle Island Giveaway” promotion offers island-destination vacations including 90 weeklong vacation first prizes valued at $14,000 each, and 200 weekend getaway second prizes valued at $4,200 each. The Grand Prize is a private tropical island. Capital One is the largest producer of First-Class mail and the USPS’ fourth-biggest customer. Capital One mails out more than 1.2 billion pieces of mail annually. (CF Library 6/3/03)

Los Angeles-based Direct Response Financial Services has named Edward Kim, president of Optimum Pay USA, and Douglas Hume, general counsel to the Company, to its Board of Directors. Mr. Kim and Mr. Hume have experience in the direct marketing industry. This experience will enable them to help Direct Response Financial Services with their marketing efforts. Direct Response Financial Services, Inc. enables people and businesses to purchase goods and services using practically any from of payment. Optimum Pay USA, Inc. offers a less expensive alternative to traditional payment processing methods.

Dallas-based Geniant has named Robert Jansen, creator of the “Cirrus Network,” as Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors. Mr. Jansen has held many positions including president and CEO of some of the most successful technology companies in the nation including Affiliated Computer Services, Omron Financial Systems, Cirrus Information Management, LeDiagio, Ltd., and Oracle Corporation. Jansen will have a strategic role at Geniant, where he plans to provide tactical help to assist the company in locating and undertaking growth opportunities in target areas. Geniant is an information technology consulting company, helping the world’s largest organizations operate and expand their businesses.

MBNA unveiled a new logo to its employees this week, displaying it in the main lobby of its Wilmington, DE headquarters. The logo is remarkably different since it uses lower-case letters as opposed to the all caps lettering used since the Company’s formation. The logo also includes a tree with multicolored leaves. According to the Delaware News Journal, MBNA will launch an aggressive promotional campaign in the first quarter, that could include MBNA’s first significant TV advertising. The logo will gradually be migrated to its 70,000,000+ cards-in-force. MBNA launched the logo initiative 18 months ago. London-based advertising giant WPP Group was hired to develop the new logo.

Credit card outstandings rose GBP 801 million during July to bring total outstandings to GBP 55.8 billion, the second largest increase over the past year. Total net lending to consumers for July hit GBP 122.7 billion, an increase of GBP 959 million over June. One-year ago credit card outstandings increased GBP 629 million and total consumer lending rose GBP 1.1 billion. During June, credit card outstandings rose GBP 739 million and total lending increased GBP 1.4 billion. The Bank of England increased its benchmark interest rate to 4.75% this month, the highest in almost three years.

The most profitable bank credit card issuers in the USA, racked up $12.0 billion in global net income during the twelve months ending June 30th, a 23% increase over the year ago period. MBNA posted the strongest gain with a 33% increase in its global operations, posting a record $2.54 billion in profit. The smallest gain was posted by American Express TRS, which reported $2.61 billion in annual net income at mid-year for a 13% increase over the prior year. The top five most profitable U.S. issuers held $471.6 billion in global managed credit card assets at mid-year, a 14.5% increase over one-year ago. For complete details on mid-year results visit CardData ([www.carddata.com][1]).